saltdean hit back

Dear David
I am concerned that it is proposed to change the letting policy for the council owned brick built beach chalets without prior consultation with existing beach chalet tenants.The first that the tenants based at Saltdean knew of the proposal was via The Argus news story of Wednesday 1st December this year which in effect deprived them of the opportunity to address your Culture,Recreation&Tourism cabinet member meeting on 7th December.
Whilst I fully support the potential for new tenants to enjoy the benefits of renting a beach chalet I believe it is unneccessary to alter the existing tenancy arrangements to allow this to happen.A clause already exists in the present  arrangements to evict those tenants who do not maintain their chalet to the standard that the council demands of them.Take the example of those chalets situated at Rottingdean.The vast majority of them have not had their doors painted annually to the councils specification.If the council enforced its clause relating to maintanance I believe that immediately twenty eight chalets could be offered up to new tenants.
Whilst it may be the case that elsewhere in the city the chalets are little used even at the height of summer it is certainly not the case at Saltdean where many of the chalets are regularly used throughout the whole year.In fact a vibrant community exists amongst Saltdean beach chalet tenants which has very positive benefits for all residents of and visitors to Saltdean.
It was beachutters who successfully campaigned a number of years ago to ensure that beach provision at Saltdean was not lessened when the beaches were reconfigured,it was beachutters who campaigned to ensure that we did not lose toilet facilities at the seafront,it was beachutters who campaigned to ensure that we did not lose disabled parking facilities and it is beachutters and friends who regularly undertake litter picks on the beaches at Saltdean to clear broken glass and rubbish to help to make sure that those beaches are safer and more pleasant for everybody to use.
Please do not penalise this community of interest and remove their tenancies when a mechanism already exists for you to achieve your noble aim of allowing more local residents to enjoy the benefits of the beach chalets.
Indeed to my knowledge there have been at least six changes of tenancy amongst the twenty Saltdean beach chalets in recent years due to deaths and tenants deciding to not renew their tenancy.
Thankyou for your time in reading this
Kind regards